Woman describes harrowing moments trying to save neighbor fatally attacked by alligator
By Tara Jakeway
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FORT PIERCE, Florida (WPBF) — WPBF spoke with the woman who watched as her neighbor was pulled away in the jaws of an alligator right behind their homes. She says she tried to help, but by the time she could reach her, it was too late.
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“I saw my neighbor… the dog running up, the neighbor being down and bitten on the leg by an alligator and pulled into the water,” Carol said.
So the 77-year-old ran and called 911, then went back out and screamed for her friend to fight.
Gator eats dog in IndiantownSecond dog killed by gator in Indiantown “I just remember her pushing her hair out of her face and getting air, and I’m saying swim…. and she’s saying I can’t the gator has me,” she said.
Carol then ran to her garage and got the longest pole she could find.
“And I thought, well, I’ll put that out in the water and hook her or hit him… and she was not there anymore,” she said.
She knew the danger of getting closer, so, hands tied, she watched for her, helplessly.
“It just haunts me right now. There’s nothing I could do, I could not get in the water,” she said.
Carol described her friend as quiet and kind saying, “she was a widow, and she had many good friends here, and she loved her dog.”
Carol says the dog survived the attack, and it haunts her that her friend didn’t too.
“I never woke up this Monday morning and thought that I would be watching someone die being taken under by an alligator,” she said.
Authorities from Florida Fish and Wildlife are reminding residents that there are more than 1 million alligators in the state, and they can be found in any body of fresh water.
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